The Indian Army said in a statement that it had successfully freed a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) who had been abducted from his Manipur home on Friday morning, after almost ten hours of captivity.
At nine in the morning , unknown individuals came in a vehicle and took away Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) Naib Subedar Konsam Kheda Singh, a resident of Charangpat Mamang Leikai in the Thoubal district of the state, while he was on leave.
“Army columns launched a coordinated joint search operation by the security agencies to rescue the JCO,” the statement continued.
“The synergised efforts of the security forces resulted in the JCO being safely rescued at 6:30 pm today. The JCO is currently at Waikhong Police Station (near Kakching) in the Thoubal district. Manipur Police is investigating the incident,” it added.
In a post on X, the Defence Ministry’s Public Relations Officer for Nagaland, Manipur & Southern Arunachal Pradesh said, “#IndianArmy rescued its JCO, Nb Sub Konsam Kheda Singh, of Charangpat Mamang Leikai, Thoubal, #Manipur, abducted this morning, while on leave. The @manipur_police is investigating the case.”
Since ethnic violence in the border state started in May 2023, there have been four kidnappings of army men in the state.
An unidentified armed group abducted and killed Serto Thangthang Kom, a former soldier of the Assam Regiment, in September 2023. He was assigned to the Defence Service Corps (DSC) in Leimakhong, Manipur.
Two months later, four people were killed by an unidentified armed group that abducted them while they were driving from Churachandpur to Leimakhong in an SUV. The four were family members of soldier in the Indian Army who was stationed in Jammu and Kashmir. A fifth passenger, the father of the soldier, who was injured, managed to escape and was later airlifted by the army to Dimapurand was eventually shifted to the base hospital in Guwahati for treatment.
In a different incident, on February 27, an Additional Superintendent of Police was momentarily abducted in Imphal.
